The challenge
Most people visit a museum as a child, with primary or secondary school. After that, they only walk in voluntarily again around the age of 35. A gap of some twenty years.
The brief
With the exhibition ‘Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour’, the Van Gogh Museum wanted to reach a younger audience aged 20 to 45, and show that the museum is more than paintings. Not via the obvious route: the museum had no need for creators who would use Yellow as a backdrop for a selfie. The museum also wanted to build relationships with creators who are a good fit in the long term.
The strategy
An earned influencer campaign
Young people are increasingly looking for ways to get away from their screens. Knitting, baking, walking, painting: so-called granny hobbies are more popular than ever. We saw a link there with Van Gogh, who took the time to look at light, colour and nature. Attention and slowing down are already in his work.
So we deliberately chose an earned influencer campaign. No standard influencer event, no paid posts and no content obligation, but an evening creators would be genuinely enthusiastic about. Creators not as broadcasters, but as partners in substance.
The creation
Slow looking
The evening revolved around slow looking. For each work, we looked at one detail and asked one question. No tour with a microphone, but room for conversation and a personal view of the work. A special element: two perfumers from Robertet, who developed three scents especially for the exhibition and took the group through their creative process. Separate ingredients together form a scent, just as colours together form a painting. And you can’t photograph a scent, only experience it.
The approach
We selected 11 creators on substance, not reach, from four worlds: art and history, culture and society, interiors and design, and music. Deliberately a new group of people who didn’t yet know each other, including Jip Dijkstra, Jade Olieberg, Sigrid ten Napel, Faye Feller, Nina Nijland and Loet van der Straten.
The impact
100% earned
All 11 invited creators made content: 34 Instagram Stories and 2 posts, with a combined potential reach of 300,000. Without paid placement and without a content obligation. Fully earned. And the exhibition itself? It became a major crowd-puller. More than 461,000 people came to see Yellow, a record number of visitors.
100%
Earned
no paid placement, no content obligation
11/11
Creators made content
34 Instagram Stories and 2 posts
461K+
Visitors
a record for Yellow
Image: Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1889. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).
